Listen to or download any of these lectures (just click on the links):

The Context and Meaning of the Battle of Marathon (Sept 28, 2010)
Professor Paul Cartledge

The Battle Itself (Oct 12, 2010)
Professor Peter Krentz

The Life of a Soldier: Persian and Greek (Nov 10, 2010)
Professor Victor Davis Hanson

The Persian Version: Battle of Marathon from the Persian Perspective (Jan 18, 2011)
Professor Thomas Harrison 

Marathon and the Moderns (Feb 9, 2011)
Ultra-Marathoner Dean Karnazes and Professor Paul Cartledge 

War and Sports (April 5, 2011)
Professor Tom Scanlon

Herodotus and the Invention of History (May 10, 2011)
Independent Scholar Robert Strassler  

Epilogue: What happened after the Battle of Marathon (June 8, 2011)
Professor John Marincola  

The Context and Meaning of the Battle of Marathon: Why We Have Celebrated (Sept 23, 2011)
Professors Paul Cartledge, Thomas Harrison, John Marincola, James Romm and Robert Strassler

The Context and Meaning of the Battle of Marathon: Why we have been celebrating the 2,500 year anniversary

Register free here for this webinar today, Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 1pm New York time: http://marathon2500-9.eventbrite.com/

Toll-free phone numbers from most countries will be made availble to all registrants.

Scholars participating in today's webinar include:

- Professor Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Chair of Greek Culture, Cambridge University
- John Marincola, Leon Golden Professor of Classics, Florida State University
- James Romm, James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics, Bard College
- Robert Strassler, Independent scholar and businessman; founder and editor of the Landmark series - Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon's Hellenika, Arrian and forthcoming titles

And many scholars have sent in their comments about the significance of Marathon. 

Join us!

- Phil 

Founder, Reading Odyssey
Director, Marathon2500 

In just over 12 hours, Professor Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Chair of Greek Culture at Cambridge University and Chairman of Marathon2500, will begin the final - and ninth - lecture of the Marathon2500 program.

Joined by scholars around the world live via webinar/toll-free conference call, Professor Cartledge will reflect on the context and meaning of the Battle of Marathon and why we have been celebrating the 2,500 year anniversary over the last 12 months.

Interested and curious adults the world over are invited to join us for this commemoration of the 2,500 year anniversay. Register here for the toll-free phone number and webinar ID:
http://marathon2500-9.eventbrite.com

Scholars from around the world have submitted short answers to the question - why is Marathon important. We'll be sharing their answers in the final webinar tomorrow.

My own answer to that question is simple. In addition to the significance of the battle for the later flourishing of Athenian culture and politics, Marathon is important for the same reason that all history is important: understanding the Battle of Marathon (and reading terrific books like Herodotus' Histories) helps humans connect to and imagine our past. And that activity has important cascading effects. By connecting to our past we start to become curious about a most important question: "how did we humans come to create the world we live in today?" By asking that question we confront and challenge passivity. Challenging passivity - and coming to terms with the possibility that we shaped our world - strengthens the intellectual and moral muscles we need to continue to create and recreate our present and future. 

- Phil 

Phil Terry
Founder, Reading Odyssey
Director, Marathon2500 

Re-thinking Marathon: two memorabilia from the battle of Marathon at the Pitt-Rivers

Dr Yannis Galanakis, Department of Antiquities Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Introduction

Among the objects in the founding collection of Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers, and within a relatively small group of ancient Greek antiquities, are two iron socketed spearheads. The first of the two spearheads (1884.120.42; FIGURES 1, 2, 5) has a much-corroded, leaf-shaped blade, with a slightly-pronounced midrib and a socket, which still contains traces of the wooden haft (total length: 26.5 x max. blade width: 4.4cm, 125gr). The second spearhead (1884.120.43; FIGURES 3, 4, 5), also badly-corroded, has a long narrow blade with a slightly-pronounced midrib and is curved upwards [1] (total length: 35.1cm x max. blade width 3cm, 126gr).

Source: Rethinking Pitt-Rivers | Marathon Spearheads 

Figure 1. 1884.120.42

Wednesday, September 21, 2011
1:00 PM New York Time (Brief lecture and then Q&A with listeners from all over the world)
Speaker: PAUL CARTLEDGE

On the *actual* 2,500-year anniversary (as best as we can determine), we will be hosting the final and ninth lecture of the Marathon2500 series.

Free
(Register here for a toll-free number: http://marathon2500-9.eventbrite.com) 

Paul Cartledge, Hellenic Parliament Global Distinguished Professor in the History and Theory of Democracy at New York University and A.G. Leventis Professor Greek Culture, Cambridge University will lead the celebration today of the 2,500 year anniversary of the Battle of Marathon by reviewing the yearlong lecture series that he's chaired and by answering questions from the global audience about any of the topics discussed during the previous 12 months.

A world expert on Athens and Sparta in the Classical Age, Professor Cartledge was chief historical consultant for the BBC TV series The Greeks and the Channel 4 series The Spartans, presented by Bettany Hughes. He is also a holder of the Gold Cross of the Order of Honour (Greece), an Honorary Citizen of (modern) Sparta and a board member of the Reading Odyssey.

Marathon2500 Lecture Series

Professor Cartledge has chaired the yearlong Marathon2500 lecture series and will be reviewing key themes and answering questions in this final lecture/discussion.

People around the world have participated in this commemoration of the battle of Marathon, thanks to the world’s best Hellenic scholars and sports historians who delivered eight lectures on the cultural, intellectual and athletic legacy of the Battle of Marathon. The talks were delivered in a variety of contexts: live audiences at NYU and Georgetown, global webinars and webcasts and all podcasts have been archived for listening on demand. 

Professor John Marincola - Marathon2500 lecture "Epilogue"

The next and final lecture will be by Marathon2500 Chair Professor Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Chair of Greek Culture at Cambridge University, Tuesday, September 20, 2011 live from Bard College in New York and broadcast free around the world via webcast, teleconference.

Registration for that final lecture will be setup by mid-June. 

Professor Marincola (Ph.D., Brown) is the Leon Golden Professor of Classics at Florida State University. The editor of the Penguin Herodotus, Professor Marincola specializes in Greek and Roman historiography and rhetoric and in this final lecture of the Marathon2500 series, Professor Marincola will talk about what happened after the battle. 

Location: Teleconference/webinar from anywhere in the world
Free registration: http://marathon2500-8.eventbrite.com

Marathon2500 

People around the world will get a chance to participate in the celebration of the battle of Marathon, thanks to a cultural campaign initiated by the Reading Odyssey, a New York not-for-profit. The Reading Odyssey and Marathon2500 chairman Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Chair of Greek Culture at Cambridge University will recruit the world’s best Hellenic scholars and sports historians to deliver eight lectures on the cultural, intellectual and athletic legacy of the Battle of Marathon. The talks will be given before live audiences, webcast online and archived for viewing or listening on demand. Lectures will begin in September 2010 and run through June 2011. To multiply their impact, the Reading Odyssey will work with universities, colleges, high schools, museums and sports organizations to create satellite listening centers.

You can join us by clicking here:
http://marathon2500-7.eventbrite.com/ 

Editor of the Landmark Herodotus, Landmark Thucydides, Landmark Xenophon, Landmark Arrian and forthcoming editions, Robert Strassler is widely acclaimed for making the work of these ancient Greek historians accessible to modern readers. In his lecture, he will talk with Professor Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Chair of Greek History at Cambridge and the chair of Marathon2500, about Herodotus, the first historian, and how in writing about the Persian Wars – incluiding the Battle of Marathon - Herodotus invented history.

Listen to the lecture and download the presentation:
http://readingodyssey.com/professor-thomas-scanlons-sports-war-presenta

You can still join us by clicking here:

http://marathon2500-6.eventbrite.com/

This global lecture - available free via webinar/conference call will look at the fascinating and puzzling legend(s) of Pheidippides (or whatever his name was), ancient long-distance messenger runners ("day runners" hemerodromoi) as a class, ancient footraces in the stadium, perhaps a bit about the Olympic truce (on the theme of sport and war), the Marathon Race in the modern Olympics, and modern long-distance running.  The common thread is the Greek and our own contest culture.